Suns Eye Justin Hamilton

The Suns are close to making a partially guaranteed offer to two-year veteran Justin Hamilton, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link). Hamilton, who finished last season with the Timberwolves, had reportedly been close to a deal last week with Valencia of Spain, but he remains a free agent. In any case, he’s uncertain about signing just a partially guaranteed deal, according to Wolfson.

Minnesota last month decided against making a qualifying offer of only about $1.147MM, $200K more than Hamilton’s minimum salary, an inauspicious sign for his NBA future. He’d been mostly stuck at the end of the bench with the Heat the past two seasons until the three-team Goran Dragic trade took him to the Pelicans, who waived him a couple of weeks later. Minnesota claimed the 7-footer off waivers, sacrificing 2014 second-rounder Glenn Robinson III to do so.

Hamilton averaged 9.0 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 24.9 minutes per game across 17 games with the Wolves. That’s a small sample size, but it appears to be enough to tempt Phoenix to some degree. The Suns have only 13 fully guaranteed contracts and the $2.184MM room exception available, though it would be surprising if they offered Hamilton more than the minimum.

Do you think Hamilton deserves a spot on an NBA roster? Leave a comment to let us know.

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